The People's Republic of China is a unified, multi-national country comprising of 56 nationalities. The Han people make up 91.02 percent of the total population, leaving 8.98 percent for the other 55 ethnic minorities. According to the law, all nationalities in China are equal. The State protects their lawful rights and interests and promotes equality, unity and mutual help among them.

Chinese family names came into existence 5,000 years ago. There are more than 5,000 family names which 200 to 300 are the most popular. The order of Chinese names is family name first, following by given name. For instance, the family name of a person is Wang. The given name is Dong. His/her full name would be Wang Dong . The most popular Chinese family names are LI, ZHANG, WANG, ZHAO, LIU, CHEN. According to the most recent official statistics, the three most popular family names are LI, WANG and ZHANG, which comprise 7.9% (97 million), 7.4 and 7.1 of total population in China respectively.

China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, which the first three being more wide spread.

Various religions exert different influences on different ethnic groups. Islam is followed by the Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tatar, Dongxiang, Salar and Bonan nationalities; Buddhism and Lamaism are followed by the Tibetan, Mongolian, Dai and Yugur nationalities; Christianity is followed by the Miao, Yao and Yi nationalities; Shamanism is followed by the Oroqen, Ewenki and Daur nationalities; the majority Han nationality believes in Buddhism, Christianity and Taoism.

http://www.simontour.com